Stubble-burning: Punjab rapped

Chandigarh : The Punjab Government today cut a sorry figure before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on the issue of stubble-burning with the tribunal directing the state counsel to list “concrete” steps it intended to take to tackle the menace on the next hearing date (October 11).  Fearing a reprimand, top functionaries of the state Agriculture Department did not attend the hearing. The only proposal listed by the department today was selecting Kallar Majri village near Patiala for a pilot project under which the farmers would be paid an incentive of Rs 1,000 per acre for not burning stubble. BKU chief Balbir Singh Rajewal questioned the government proposals, arguing that these were ornamental. “How will the state replicate this project in over 12,500 villages given the fiscal stress?” he asked. He pointed out that the farmers needed to clear the paddy straw in their fields for sowing wheat. “What about the farmers who have to grow vegetables? The window given to them for clearing the fields has been too small,” he contended. Pointing out that debt-ridden farmers of Punjab were resorting to suicide, he argued how then could small and marginal farmers be expected to spend lakhs on buying costly Conservation Agriculture (CA) implements.